Seriously man, I took a drive with the family to carmel/Monterey last weekend. Whats up with your roads? why are they so clean, smooth and not to mention THE ULTIMATE FUN TO DRIVE ON? I was like a little kid, very sad to drive back home to LA.
It balances out though, we have the coolest people down here. JK
Hamada

Drove that little ride last year...Lots of picture opps...and twisties to practice on :)

Do a search...Another guy took picutures of the sights as he did the same trip.

next time if you're not coming with the family let us know and we'll set up a meet and drive. if you just did the standard scenic routes they were probably pretty fun, but im guessing they were also pretty well traveled. Right now I'm going out (driving! :p) every week with a guy that knows the Santa Cruz backroads extremely well, and I have honestly never had more fun on the road. If anyone is interested in joining us, shoot me a PM.

-D

travel a little futher up north to the bay area, and you'll probably change your mind.

travel a little futher up north to the bay area, and you'll probably change your mind.
A little thing called traffic?

travel a little futher up north to the bay area, and you'll probably change your mind.

Change my mind about what? Or are you saying the roads are bad? I know a lot of the roads in Sonoma county are f-ing terrible. Anyways, I only go to school in Santa Cruz. Im actually coming back home (home yay!!) to Cotati this weekend. You want to go for a drive?

i think he's talking about the bay area, not the "north bay area"

i think he's talking about the bay area, not the "north bay area"

D'oh!! :(

Yeah hes probably talking about that. Oh well, the offer still stands :D

Try driving around san francisco! its like we dont even have a public road works dept. The telco and cable companies tear up the streets to provides us high bandwidth internet but then they dont bother to properly repave and the whole place has gone to hell roadwise.

you all need to come to the central coast. life just moves along at a different pace around here. the roads are not too shabby either.

hehe, yea..san francisco. thats the place to drive!

Not to mention the fact that you can actually see our roads. Unlike So Cal with all of its smog.

Not to mention the fact that you can actually see our roads. Unlike So Cal with all of its smog.
:rolleyes

And even further north, you'll find my favorite, 128 from Cloverdale (north of Santa Rosa) to the Mendocino Coast and PCH. Keep driving north to Westport and then follow it back inland to 101 and circle back. 128 is one of those roads they use to film car commercials with incredible redwoods and it's a great road for driving. Summer can be bad due to many killerbeggos, so plan accordingly. I lived up there for 10 years and drove it many times, both in my car and on my bike. Always enjoyable!
jsm3

you all need to come to the central coast. life just moves along at a different pace around here. the roads are not too shabby either.

Loved San Luis when I went to school there...don't remember to many twisties...I was to busy mountain biking and hiking...Great place to live though...If you cand find work that can pay for living out there.

To tell you the truth we have some F-up roads here.

Lots of traffic, so much so that I don't even hardly drive the M3 anymore unless it's
to-on-from a racetrack. So many idoits on the road, lacking basic skill and common
sense, have taken the fun out of a backroad drive.

,

To tell you the truth we have some F-up roads here.

Everywheres got "F-up" roads. You just have to know where to look. Socal has Mulholland Raceway and all of the associated canyon roads. We have roads like Skaggs Creek in the North Bay and Hwy 236 in Santa Cruz. If you know what you're doing, or just do a little exploring, theres awesome tarmac hiding everywhere just waiting to be torn up.

Not to mention the fact that you can actually see our roads. Unlike So Cal with all of its smog.

:confused

NOR CAL sucks ass! j/k, i always have a tendency to say that. Norcal is weird, its like once u pass gorman, and before hitting bakersfield, its all farm land, then when u hit fresno and around the san luis obispo area, its decent looking, from the citrus heights/sac town area, its aite, but the rural areas scare the ish outta me.

I would have to admit, the roads in the bay area & norcal are cool. Especially the coastal routes

i think he's talking about the bay area, not the "north bay area"
yep. i was refering to the bay area in general (bay area is north of monterey county). i agree, sf roads suck major ass!


NOR CAL sucks ass! j/k, i always have a tendency to say that. Norcal is weird, its like once u pass gorman, and before hitting bakersfield, its all farm land, then when u hit fresno and around the san luis obispo area, its decent looking, from the citrus heights/sac town area, its aite, but the rural areas scare the ish outta me.
travel outside any major city areas in california, and that's how it is. the bay area is far from being "rural".

Lots of traffic, so much so that I don't even hardly drive the M3 anymore unless it's
to-on-from a racetrack. So many idoits on the road, lacking basic skill and common
sense, have taken the fun out of a backroad drive.

,

That or driving way late at night...or early in the morning...

Also CHP has been cracking down as of late. I see way to many more Chippies on the road for my taste. Looks like the Governator is trying to boost state revenues. When I turn on the morning traffic, the traffic people always warn that CHP is out in force to slow people down.

drive up to Lake Berryessa......fun little drive there!!!!!.....

drive up to Lake Berryessa......fun little drive there!!!!!.....

Yup...ever been to Lake Port/Clearlake...Not the long way...but straight through that mountain road? Forget the name though...Locals drive through there like its nothing...

I drove my Durango through there one afternoon at a brisk pace and made all my passengers sick...two girls threw up...I, however, was having a good time :devillook

1) Get off the Hwy 101 (north) and turn (left) onto "Dry Creek Rd" (0.0 miles)

2) Once you near Lake Sonoma "Dry Creek" becomes "Stewarts Pt / Skaggs Springs Rd"

3) Stay on Skaggs Springs Rd until you turn (left) onto "Tin Barn Rd" (33.3 miles)

4) At the end of the road turn (left) onto "King Ridge Rd" (39.3 miles)

5) Follow road until you come to a 4 way intersetion. There make a hard (right) onto "Fort Ross Rd" (55.7 miles)

6) At the end of the road turn (left) onto "Meyes Grade Rd" (65.4 miles)

7) Follow until it too comes to an end. There turn (left) onto Hwy 1 (south) (70.3 miles)

8) When the group gets into the town of Jenner we will be stopping for a little break (75.9 miles) there you can fill up on gas and get snacks.

9) Continue (south) on Hwy 1

10) This is were the group will be broken up. first group will be turning onto "Willow Creek Rd" and going for a dirt drive. The rest of the group will continue (south) until they get to "Coleman Valley Rd" where they also turn (left) but i do not have the Mileage Marker for that turn. So i will be driving that route on Sat. the 17th so no one gets lost. them i'll post the marker for the Tarmac crew for Sunday's drive. Because i'll be doing the "Dirt" route.

11) Dirt Crew turn (left) onto "Willow Creek Rd. (76.9 miles)

** when Tarmac crew gets to the end of Coleman Valley Rd. (you'll see a stop sign) Turn (right) onto Joy Rd.

12) Dirt crew, at the end of Willow Creek turn (right) onto "Coleman Valley Rd" (88.0 miles)

13) At the three way intersetion, The dirt crew stays (left) and turns onto "Joy Rd" (88.2 miles)

14) At the end of Joy Rd. Turn (right) onto "Bodega Hwy" (93.1 miles)

** i was hoping that here we could stop again and regroup. once in the small town of Bodega

15) Follow the road until it ends and turn (left) onto Hwy 1 (south / east) (94.5 miles)

16) Stay on Hwy 1 until we come to the small town of Valley Ford. There we turn (right) onto Valley Ford Rd. (97.9 miles)

17) Turn (left) onto "Whitaker" right before the bridge (101.4 miles)

18) Stay on Whitaker until it comes to and end at a STOP sign. There continue (straight) onto "Fallon Two Rock Rd." (104.3 miles)

19) Turn (right) onto " Alexander Rd" (107.9 miles)

20) At the end of the road turn (left) onto " Tomales Rd" (108.8 miles)

21) Turn (right) onto "Chileno Valley Rd" (109.6 miles)

22) At the end of the road turn (right) onto "Marshall / Petaluma Rd" (119.3 miles)

23) At the bottom of the hill turn (left) onto "Hicks Valley Rd" (121.9 miles)

24) At the end of the road turn (right) onto "Point Reyes / Petaluma Rd" (124.7 miles)

25) Once at the Cheese Factory we turn (right) into there parking lot and head to the back for our final goodbyes (125.6 miles)



I hope that makes everyone happy. And Trust me it's one of the best drives you'll ever be on.


-rich

This drive was incredible. The upside was that even though it was raining, we only lost one car!! :redspot

EDIT: stick to the tarmac route :devillook